How did DD get a third? Anyone who works at uni know?

[greensofas]

Bright DD, AAB at a level (covid results but all essays marked at that level) got her Russell group uni of choice in a topic she had studied at A level. Worked hard at uni, tons of library time and going to lectures/study groups. Has struggled all the way through with ups and downs in results even though she has enjoyed subject. In final year found it all very hard and ended up on antidepressants and therapy. Still worked like a Trojan though (competitive with herself)
Just graduated with a third. I know she is depressed with result and after googling and coming on mumsnet, everyone seems to say 'only the lowest get thirds these days' or 'only the ones that didn't even try'
She doesn't seem to be either of those things. I feel so sad for her. Any advice or words or wisdom?

Completely untrue, I would find it odd for someone to apply for a job without including it on their cv and lots of schemes require certain grades.

Surely the skills involved in essays/exams/university stuff are very different to the skills you need to succeed in a working environment? Success in one does not automatically mean success in the other as well.

@greensofas Many congratulations to your daughter and she has shown great perseverance battling on despite poor marks and mental health problems. These are great traits to have and I hope she will soon realise this. Don’t be sad for her, point out all the good, all the things she has achieved.

Unless she's applying for post-grad study, I can't think of any time she will EVER have to provide/show her certificate or tell anyone her grade. At 40 I never have except to get into post-grad study (and the classification didn't matter in my case, just needed to 'prove' I had an undergrad degree).

CV/LinkedIn she can just say 'Degree title, Uni name, year complete'. She has a degree - that's fantastic! She's not in the lowest 10% of general intelligence for the population. Many, many people don't even apply for uni (or even study post year 11!)

When working in the UK, I had to present all my certificates on day one of every teaching job I ever had.

When applying for teacher registration in Victoria I had to present original certificates to VIT, though not to the school.

@echt really? Wow. I'd have thought the teachers registration board would just want to see your teaching degree and once registered, that's it.

You mentioned ups and downs with results.
so I’m guessing she knew where she was.
My son just graduated and he knew what his grades were in terms of 1st/2:1,etc all the way through. He knew at the end of year 2, then again Christmas & Easter, before dissertation hand in etc.

She really can’t be that surprised.

But yes a Third is obviously the bottom of the honours degree. After that it’s a degree without honours which I believe not all Universities do for all subjects.

Some have noted that some people fail.
Its very very unusual to fail at the last hurdle, ie Last year. They will have either been offered to repeat a year, told they won’t progress to the next year or dropped out well before they hear about results at the end of the course.

It is still a pass in an honours degree. Depending on her career choice it may not matter anyway.

Of course they do.
Staff have results from assessments in years 2 to so on. Then year 3, plus dissertations etc.

They will advice and allow students to retake if they are marginal.
They offer whole year retakes if grades are low or a unit or several have been failed
They can redo end of year exams in the August before returning. I know St Andrews do this and many others.

Students have results from assessments that count towards their degrees. They know exactly where they are.

I work in education and I would be inclined to think that she exaggerated to you how much she studied and how much work she did. The lowest grade I know anyone to get is a 2:2 and it’s a person who really didn’t try - she also had far lower grades at A Level than your daughter. I suffered badly with my mental health at university - OCD and anxiety disorder - and often didn’t attend lectures. I usually gave myself about 3 days before the deadline to write an essay as I couldn’t concentrate until there was literally no choice but to start. And I got a 2:1. Everyone I know seemed to get a 2:1! I don’t mean to be unkind - uni can be really hard and your DD suffered with MH as I did, so I really sympathise. But maybe she just wasn’t able ti do to work/meet deadline and that’s why her grade is so low? And didn’t have the heart to tell you?

Like a PP said, unis don’t want kids to do badly as it reflects badly on them. So I’d have to guess that there was a reason for it?

This is a good question. Is there any chance there’s an additional need that’s never been identified?

DP is at least 50% deaf. Hard to believe, but she wasn’t diagnosed till her final year at university. She compensated all the way through school, getting three As at A level (back in the 80s!) but came a cropper in her final year of uni when it all got too much and the content finally outstripped what she was able to teach herself from books (heavily taught/lab work subject). A tutor suggested she get her hearing checked and there it was.

@greensofas University isn't the be all and end all of a child's life!
My DS had severe dyslexia, but had very good spatial awareness that enabled him to do a skilled rare trade- He's now self employed, own house, and no university loans to pay back.

Truly, don't let it worry you too much as long as your daughter is happy in her chosen field, that is all that matters.

Edit..Son probably still has severe dyslexia, but it doesn't get in the way of work.

I reckon this... My friend {Grammar school, straight A's {back in non modular days} fell apart completely at Uni.
Had a breakdown- Luckily she's ok now.

She did well to complete her degree in the circumstances. I know someone the same age as your DD who should have been graduating this summer and a year ago was on track for a 2:1, but has had a very difficult time with her mental health and ended up with no degree at all. The problem is that if she has depression and anxiety it will have impacted the effectiveness of her study time - think staring at a page worrying rather than getting on with her work.

Your DD is sad and disappointed right now, but I hope things work out well for her and she finds her path.

Why is she planning some 'work experience' and travel' at this point?

What is the 'work experience'?

What are her plans to get a permanent job?

You sound like you don’t think those are good ideas?

Sympathies to your DD, it’s horrible to be disappointed and embarrassed and feeling inadequate. You don’t mention her degree subject, some are harder than others and it really depends what she wants to do with it. Is there a post grad qualification that she could take that would render her classification a moot point? Ie a Masters, PGCE or professional qualification either in the same subject or preferably in an element of her course that she did love or thrive in, or even something completely different?

All is not lost, although she may feel adrift at the moment .

Media either vendor/ sales or agency could be a good choice with a 3rd.

Not quite the same but I did well at school /loved learning but uni was a difficult time. It was a cold environment teaching was crap. Library was a mindfuck (trying to get hold of papers was a nightmare) i hated the whole thing. I assumed going in id get a 1st or high 2.1. I did get a 2.1 but literally the lowest possible (either 59.6 or a 60 something like that) it knocked my a bit but ultimately i came out of it and make good money now.

Be supportive and help her research her options

and I really don't feel like that fits her.

At my place, students are given every benefit of mitigation, rounding up, preponderance etc. We want them to do well.

But effort doesn’t automatically lead to achievement

Thing is, that is the result she received. So that is her, at this moment and in this respect. That is the objective fact.

But I wonder if it’s partly your approach to this. You are regarding this one thing - the grade of her degree result - as defining your DD. I think you need to reframe that way of thinking. It doesn’t define her as a person and it doesn’t help her for you to do so.

She has a degree. She was chronically ill throughout and that is perhaps what needs attention now. She has a long life. Once she’s through her illness (and people can recover and get through it - it can be an illness common to those in their early 20s which they grow out of) she can discover what she’s really interested in. She can flourish as the multi-faceted person she will become. One thing (degree result) doesn’t define her.

If she had depression, did she just not show up to some exams or hand things in late?
My db was super bright and set to get a first. He got a 2.1 - all high marks in the 80s and 90s and then there would be a random 40 here and there from when he wasn’t getting out of bed. If you handed things in late or need to request a resit it got capped at 40. But this was about 15 years ago.

exactly, they do ask, you have to state the classification on an application form. Graduate schemes wouldn’t accept a 3rd either unfortunately so I’d ignore this statement as it’s not true

What's done is done.
My DD got rubbish grades at GCSE but is shining at university. She had SEMH. She was an academic scholar but couldn't be a show pony. She was bullied.
However I was advised to give her a year of kindness. No pressure, just support and love. She walked the dog, cleaned up and helped me with a few work projects. It was a turning point.
Unless your daughter thinks there is a real chance of a remark I wouldn't bother. She can do the OU for any further study. It is cheaper and the people are fun. Later on she will own it. I went to a very famous RG uni. No one believed me when I was younger. I looked like Barbie. I use my degree knowledge everyday but my profession is not related to my BA course.
I employ lots of graduates and I am more interested in their subject than grade.
Put it all behind you. Give her a big hug. She needs you to be positive.
And Carol Voderman has a third from Cambridge. Not too shabby and she is a qualified pilot too.

She will get a transcript of results that will tell you the percentage for every assignment. What did she get in her dissertation/ final project? Did she hand anything in late? When I was at uni (a while ago now) they docked 5% off the mark for every day you went passed the deadline.
That can easily get you into the realms of lower marks, no matter how good the assignment is.

You would have to find out the boundaries for her course, but for mine 70% was a first, 65 a 2:1 etc…

She needs to speak to her Tutor - a degree isn’t like an exam where you do the test and get a surprise result… it’s something you work on over a long time and also your tutor sees it regularly and knows exactly what sort of grade you’re heading for because they are the ones often marking it!! She must of had meetings with a tutor and gone over it in depth several times with them- I’d be asking who marked it, was this the grade anticipated? if for example she’d seen her tutor and then they’d gone off sick so marked by someone else and seemed a drastic change I’d approach the uni. Also important to note you can only do what she wants to do - her responsibility Xox

You get graded on every essay/exam. So it's easy to know roughly what you will get. I'm guessing she was boarder line between the two and it didn't go in her favour.

Even though she was studying if she's struggling with mh she may not have taken the info in sufficiently or done as well as expected . A third is fine she can go on to have a good career if she works hard